A 40-year contract with Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District ends next year, and now voters are faced with deciding whether to pay 2.11 mills of property tax for inclusion in the district or see their water bills go up.

Bayou Lafourche provides 80 percent of the parish's drinking supply, and the parish has a bargain price of 3 cents per 1,000 gallons of water compared to neighboring parishes that draw from the bayou.

Parishes that are members of the water district each pay the same property tax of 2.11 mills along with a lesser fee per gallon drawn from the waterway. A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of a property's assessed value.

Through Terrebonne's expiring contract with the district, the parish has only paid a per-gallon fee for water though the parish pulls more water than other parishes that pay the fee and the property tax.

If the tax passes, the per-gallon fee and users' water bills will stay about the same, plus residents will pay the property tax other parishes are assessed, said Michael Sobert, Consolidated Waterworks District No. 1 general manager.

If the tax fails, the district's board, which Terrebonne will not be part of, will have final say on how much the per-gallon fee will be when the contract expires.

“We might add in what we don't get from (property tax) and include what everyone else pays,” said district board Chairman Hugh Caffery. “They would pay a lot larger water user fee than what the district member pays.”

Sobert added the parish's current 3 cents per 1,000 gallons payment would need to be increased to 50 cents to be equitable with the amount other parishes contribute in property tax and user fees.

That would translate to minimum $4 per month increase in water bills, Sobert said.

The average homeowner with a $150,000 home would see an annual increase of $15.83 from the proposed property tax.

Local officials have voiced support of the property tax measure because it will give Terrebonne representation on the district's board and thus a means to stabilize fees for water.

“We are either going to pay it one way without representation, or we pay it the other way with representation. It will come in completely through the water bills,” Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said in favor of the proposition.

The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce has also come out in favor of the tax.

“The 2.11 mills required for membership in the district is much less costly than the water bills we could expect to see if the parish does not become a member of (the district),” said Jennifer Armand, chairwoman of the chamber's Board of Directors.

Terrebonne Parish was a very different place when the district and parish reached their agreement in 1974, Sobert noted.

Houma wasn't as big as it is now, and all the development around La. 311 hadn't occurred.

When the parish first started to rely on the bayou, the Schriever treatment facility was built to handle 8 million gallons a day. It now averages about 15 million gallons per day.

“Five to 10 percent of the district's revenue comes from Terrebonne, yet they get 45 percent of the water,” Caffery said. “When you look at it that way, the people in the district who are paying property tax are subsidizing water for Terrebonne.”

There are those who argue a higher-user fee would be more fair considering businesses pay the lion's share of property taxes. There is also the fact that 40 percent of homeowners pay no property tax though the state's homestead exemption that allows $75,000 of a property's value to be exempt from property taxes.

Sobert said the decision is up to voters, but he noted other benefits the parish would receive from joining Lafourche, Assumption and Ascension parishes in the district.

Businesses that have a heavy reliance on water, such as seafood processors, may think twice before settling in Terrebonne if water rates are increased drastically, Sobert said.

He also noted the parish will likely increase its reliance on Bayou Lafourche in coming years with the current treatment facility having capacity to handle 24 million gallons from the bayou.

The parish's other source of drinking water is the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which is becoming saltier and less of an option with each passing year, Sobert said.

Last year, the parish also borrowed $20 million for a transmission line that would move water originating from Bayou Lafourche to Houma, Sobert said.

“As a member of the Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District, you are guaranteed an unlimited amount of fresh water,” Sobert said. “Availability is an issue in the future. If things get a little tight in Bayou Lafourche and we are not a member, who gets what?”

As a non-member, Terrebonne has limits to what it can draw per its contract with the district. Those limits have been surpassed but not enforced, Caffery said.

The tax is expected to raise about $1.8 million, which will about double the district's budget.

The district is charged with maintaining and operating water flow of the bayou through a pump station in Donaldsonville that pumps water from the Mississippi River.

Caffery said the money will aid in the maintenance of the bayou and accelerate the district's completion of $70 million in projects identified by the district's master plan aimed at increasing the flow of the bayou.

The district has the goal of quadrupling the flow of water in the bayou, which requires significant dredging projects to increase the flow capacity, Caffery noted.

Xerxes Wilson can be reached at 448-76369 or xerxes.

wilson@dailycomet.com.

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